Relationship with O. J. Simpson

Brown met O. J. Simpson in June 1977 while working as a waitress at a Beverly Hills nightclub, Daisy.[5] Although he was still married to his first wife Marguerite, Simpson and Brown began dating. Simpson and Marguerite divorced in March 1980,[6] Brown and Simpson were married on February 2, 1985, five years after his retirement from professional football.[7] They had two children together, Sydney Brooke (born October 17, 1985) and Justin Ryan Simpson (born August 6, 1988).[8] The marriage lasted seven years, during which Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse in 1989.[9] Brown filed for divorce in 1992 citing "irreconcilable differences".[10]

Murder

On the morning of June 13, 1994, neighbors, alerted by a barking dog, found the mutilated bodies of Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in the enclosed front courtyard of her condo on South Bundy Drive in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Goldman was a waiter at the restaurant Mezzaluna, where Brown and her family had dined that evening. He was at her condominium to return a pair of eyeglasses that Brown's mother, Juditha, had accidentally dropped outside the restaurant at the curb. Both Goldman and Brown had been stabbed multiple times. While the killer was committing the murders, Sydney and Justin, her children by Simpson, were asleep inside the condominium.[11]

O. J. Simpson was arrested and charged with both murders; he was acquitted of these crimes in a criminal trial. However, in a subsequent civil trial, he was found liable for the deaths of his ex-wife and Goldman and ordered to pay $33,500,000 (USD) to the families of Brown and Goldman.[12][13] During the trial, Brown's parents were granted temporary custody of Sydney and Justin Simpson.[14] In 1996, a judge granted Simpson's petition to give him full custody of the children.[15] Brown's parents continued unsuccessfully to fight for custody of Sydney and Justin.

Relationship with Goldman

Whether Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were just friends or something more is not known conclusively, but Goldman is always referred to as "her friend". The Los Angeles Times reported on June 15, 1994:

“

"Goldman, 25, also had an increasingly close relationship with 35-year-old Nicole Brown Simpson, whom he had exercised with, accompanied to dance clubs and often met for coffee and dinner during the past month and a half. He told others that he was just friends with Simpson. But he boasted of her stunning good looks and talked about the special kick it gave him to see heads turn when the two of them pulled up in her white Ferrari in front of The Gate, a fashionable West Hollywood dance club, with him behind the wheel....Six weeks ago Goldman was driving the Ferrari, with its highly recognizable L84AD8 license plate, when he joined [another waiter, Craig] Clark for lunch in Santa Monica. Clark said that Goldman told him it was Nicole Simpson's car, but that he did not say she was his girlfriend. 'He said they were friends', Clark recalled."[17]

”

The property

Hired by Nicole's father, Lou Brown, to measure the economic impact that the crime scene stigma had on the Bundy property, economist and crisis consultant Randall Bell writes in his book, Disasters: Wasted Lives, Valuable Lessons,[18] "Right after the murders, thousands of people showed up and just stood around staring at the crime scene. This continued through the long-standing trial. Relying on research I'd done on the Charles Manson murders at the home of Sharon Tate, I advised Mr. Brown that the dimunition around the property would gradually decrease and the market value would go back up. Two and one-half years after the murders, the property was purchased by a very nice couple. They asked my advice and I suggested they change both the address and the facade on Bundy Drive, which, I believed would keep the gawking down. Some months later, while working a nearby case, I decided to see if my advice had been followed. Although I had been to the condo many times, I drove right past it – it was no longer recognizable to me."